1. Field
The present disclosure relates to network management. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a method and system for network virtualization using a centralized point of control.
2. Related Art
The relentless growth of the Internet has brought with it an insatiable demand for bandwidth. As a result, equipment vendors race to build larger, faster, and more versatile routers to move traffic, especially in the core networks. In a traditional mode of operation, such a router has a control plane and a data plane. The router is typically controlled by local software which implements the control and data planes. The router communicates with other routers through predefined protocols. The control plane configures the forwarding information on the router and distributes control information (e.g., routing cost), and the data plane forwards data packets according to the forwarding information. However, each individual router requires tedious and complex configuration, typically performed by a network administrator. Hence, accessing and configuring such information remotely and automatically can improve the management of a router, thereby addressing one of the most challenging problems in today's networking paradigm.
Remotely gaining access to a router's control plane via a network can address some aspects of this problem. For example, OpenFlow is a protocol that allows configuring some routing policies, such as a network path, by software running on a separate server. However, OpenFlow only defines the flow table message for an OpenFlow switch, and does not provide sufficient infrastructure to control a router completely. For example, all possible messages between the software and a switch are not defined. Furthermore, an OpenFlow control plane is completely centralized. Consequently, it cannot utilize distributed protocols for better performance.
Hence, while remotely configuring network paths on a router brings many desirable features to layer-3 networks, some issues remain unsolved for network virtualization.